[breckenedge]

It’s ok, not the first time someone has gotten that impression about palliative care. It’s something that my spouse has to constantly reinforce with her patients and their families. Thanks for sharing the article. The point you’re making is important.

[nick__m]

Could you define palliative care, please ?

I to tought that it was a branch of medicine dedicated to the relief of the suffering of those who are afflicted with a disease that will eventually kill them. But clearly you indicate that it's more than that so I would like to know.

[breckenedge]

Her elevator speech definition: Palliative care is a whole person approach to medicine for patients with a terminal diagnosis who are still undergoing active treatment.

[mindslight]

FWIW definitions like that didn't help me understand what palliative care means in practice or what it would have done for me as a caregiver, apart from its well-defined subset of hospice. People kept asking me if I had considered "palliative care", but could never define what it was. I don't think that was just a polite way of saying hospice - it was a distinct group at the same VNA. It didn't help that this palliative team I tried talking to was small and there was some administrative weirdness. In the end it didn't matter for me - full on hospice was definitively appropriate, and they did their job very well. But in the interests of helping others in a similar situation, more concrete explanations of the mechanics would help!

[nick__m]

thank you